Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, has welcomed the first steps towards the delivery of full-scale tidal lagoon infrastructure in the UK with the submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment scoping report for a tidal lagoon between Cardiff and Newport.

The Tidal Lagoon in Cardiff could power all Welsh homes for 120 years and would be the UK's first full-scale tidal lagoon power plant. The lagoon would generate power for approximately 14 hours each day and could be powered on in 2022.

An Environment Impact Assessment scoping document seeks comment on all of the survey work proposed to support an eventual robust planning application for a Nationally Significant Infrastructure project.

Tidal Lagoon Power Limited expects to submit a full planning application for Tidal Lagoon Cardiff in 2017, with a decision then expected in 2018. The lagoon will take up to five years to build.

Commenting, Jenny Willott MP, said:

"This is an exciting proposal that would make use of Cardiff's natural resources and allow us to generate electricity in a more affordable, reliable and environmentally friendly way. It is still early days but I welcome today's news and look forward to hearing about further developments."